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St. Paul woman sentenced for smuggling elephant parts, exotic birds

A St. Paul woman who smuggled parts of an Asian elephant and several dead birds into the United States was sentenced on Wednesday.

A U.S. District Court judged sentenced Seng Her, 57, to three years of probation and 300 hours of community service.

The St. Paul woman was indicted in December and pled guilty to one county of smuggling goods into the country.

Her was stopped at the Minneapolis-St.Paul International Airport on Nov. 28, 2007. Authorities found Her, who was coming from Laos, with parts of an endangered Asian elephant and several dead exotic birds.

Federal law prohibits carrying parts of endangered species and certain other dead animal parts into the U.S. without proper permits. Authorities said the species Her was smuggling would not have even qualified for permits.

It took two years for her to be charged because investigators had to send the elephant parts to a lab that could analyze the DNA to confirm it was an Asian elephant.